1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a new and improved apparatus for transporting cable lengths or sections--also referred to in the art as wire or lead lengths or sections--in a direction substantially perpendicular to the lengthwise axis of such cable lengths or sections.
Generally speaking, the apparatus of the present development for transporting cable lengths or sections is of the type comprising at least one intermittently driven endless transport element or device arranged upon a machine frame. Grippers are arranged at the same spacing in tandem or behind one another at the outer periphery of the transport element. These grippers close due to the force of associated springs and grasp both ends of an associated cable section or length at the region of a deflection location of the transport element or device. These cable sections are delivered by a cable feed or infeed device. During the intermittent revolving motion of the transport element the grippers retain the cable sections, move such past work or processing stations, and at the region of the other deflection location of the transport element the grippers transfer the previously grasped cable sections to a cable processing station, such as a cable deposit structure or receiver or to a further cable fitting installation or station.
2. Discussion of the Background and Material Information
Such cable section transport apparatuses serve to cyclically or intermittently transport electrical cables along a cable processing line from one work or processing station to the next. At the work stations the ends of the cable sections are stripped of their electrical insulation and there is fitted a plugable terminal or electrical connector at the end of the electrical cable and which is preferably fabricated from a stamped or punched sheet metal part.
German Published Patent Application No. 2,622,360, published Dec. 8, 1977 discloses such type cable section transport apparatus, wherein gripper clamp carriages which are articulated to one another are assembled to form an endless articulated or hinge chain. Each gripper clamp carriage comprises four travel rollers riding upon support rails and a gripper clamp pivotally mounted upon bearing bolts. The gripper is retained in a closed position by a compression or pressure spring and a cam and in a open position by control rolls and guide cams. Two such endless articulated chain drives containing a forward feed path, a return path and two deflection locations are arranged in parallelism next to one another upon a machine frame so as to be retractable from one another in such a manner that a respective gripper of each articulated chain drive grasps an end of a cable section and the parallel spacing of both articulated chain drives is accommodated to the length of the cable section which is to be momentarily processed.
Furthermore, at one deflection location the articulated chain drives are provided with a respective toothed double drive wheel or gear arranged at both sides adjacent each chain and which in each case engage with the teeth between the travel rollers of the gripper clamp carriages and drive the articulated chains. A cantilever arm secured to the machine frame merges with the drive wheels. This cantilever arm has upper and lower guide tracks tangentially associated with the drive wheels and receive the travel rollers of the gripper clamp carriages. At the other deflection location there are provided tensionable stationary deflection guide tracks which merge with the upper and lower guide tracks. During a revolving movement the gripper clamps open for a short period of time, once in order to receive a cable section and once for the delivery of the finally processed cable section which has been fitted with terminals or connectors. At all other regions the gripper clamps are closed, and between the time that there is received and the time that there is delivered the cable section these gripper clamps firmly hold in place, through the force of a spring, the ends of each associated cable section to be processed.
A drawback of this cable section transport apparatus resides in the fact that, in particular, the drive wheels, the guide tracks for the travel rollers and the guide cams or curves for opening and closing the gripper clamps are relatively complicated and expensive, and the ends of the cable sections are retained in a rigid holder or support without any possibility of movement. A further drawback will be seen in that, such prior art cable section transport apparatus requires a considerable amount of space and yet there can not be transported and processed cable sections of random length. This is so because the minimum and maximum lengths of the cable sections is dependent upon how close together and how far apart there can be brought both of the justapositioned articulated chain drives.